Demand surges for mid-level professionals

The state of hiring also varied as per sectors. For instance, sectors such as IT, BPO/ITeS, automobile, BFSI and healthcare sectors mostly hired for the mid-level, while manufacturing and retail sectors hired mostly at junior levels.

The job market seems to be on an upswing. The highest demand is for mid-level professionals with 2-5 years of experience. For this segment there has been a surge in demand by 11 per cent. In comparison, the increase in demand for senior level professionals with 10-20 years of experience has been 10 per cent while the demand for top level professionals with 20+ years of experience has only increased by 9 per cent.

However, it seems there are very few takers at the entry level. The demand for 0-2 years has declined by 12 percent. And for the sub-senior level (5-10 years of experience), the surge in demand has been only 5 per cent.

“Th mid-level segment is quick to pick up new skills, and capitalise on training and development opportunities to accelerate both their own and the company’s growth,” says Nilanjan Roy, head of strategy, Times Business Solutions – the company which has conducted this survey under RecruiteX.

Not just in the month of December, a similar trend was observed all through 2016. The survey gathered inputs from over 800 employers to capture the state of recruitments over the year.

The survey reveals that 60 per cent of respondents agreed to the fact that middle level professionals were indeed the most hired lot in 2016, followed by junior level employees (25 per cent) and senior staff (15 per cent).

The state of hiring also varied as per sectors. For instance, sectors such as IT, BPO/ITeS, automobile, BFSI and healthcare sectors mostly hired for the mid-level, while manufacturing and retail sectors hired mostly at junior levels.

IT, manufacturing, healthcare and BFSI sectors hired for core profiles while retail and automobile sector hired in support roles, for the most part in 2016.

Interestingly, 60 per cent of respondents agreed to have hired up to 5 per cent more women professionals in 2016 as compared to 2015.

The sectors that turned out to be frontrunners in hiring women professionals, were healthcare and IT.

The biggest hiring challenges of 2016 were sourcing the right talent and minimising dropouts.